


Higher, Further, Faster . . .

by enid_salt



Series: MCU character studies/meta [5]
Category: Captain Marvel (2019), Marvel Cinematic Universe, WandaVision (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Jimmy Woo mentioned, Wanda Maximoff mentioned - Freeform, Wandavision episode 4 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:21:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29089701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enid_salt/pseuds/enid_salt
Summary: Monica Rambeau stayed with her grandparents the night her mother went into space with a superhero and aliens.She's not getting grounded like that ever again as long as she can help it.But some things are beyond her control. . . not much, though.
Relationships: Maria Rambeau & Monica Rambeau
Series: MCU character studies/meta [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1300577
Kudos: 29





	Higher, Further, Faster . . .

**Author's Note:**

> Last check point: This contains spoilers for Wandavision through the latest episode released, "Episode 4: We Interrupt This Program"

The minute she gets the envelope from D.C., Monica Rambeau - usually very composed - rips it open and scans its contents with thorough interest. 

It's from Fury alright - and he wrote a hell of a recommendation for her. 

As she's reading the last lines, she knows: this is the first step. 

She gets into an aeronautical space engineering program that's at the (publicly) cutting edge of innovation. 

Monica Rambeau becomes Captain Rambeau the way her mother Maria “Photon” Rambeau and her auntie Carol “Avenger” Danvers got to test pilot programs in the 80's and 90's: she studies harder, works longer, and flies faster than anyone else in her class. 

Her mother warns her at times, "A shooting star still burns up in the atmosphere". 

But Monica knows shooting stars aren't stars at all. And the fire that burns inside her is leagues hotter than any meteor that comes tumbling down to Earth. 

She keeps her head high and her eyes focused on the horizon through it all: the post-graduate studies, the time spent logging flight hours, the founding of SWORD by her mother. 

Joining was not her first choice - between the borderline nepotism, the seemingly endless government oversight, and just a lack of interest in anything that wasn’t flying, she doesn’t jump at the bit to get in the door. 

Maria offers it herself. 

“Do you trust me?” her mother asks her over the dinner table; the very same that once had a SHIELD agent, a cosmic superhero, and two space aliens around it. 

“With every atom in my body.” 

She starts at the bottom and now, she’s here at the top making waves and establishing a name for herself. 

Every time something in the news mentions SHIELD, or a new hero, she waits with bated breath to see Carol in her glory, shining like the Sun on a clear day. 

Time passes, things change, ever the same. 

Cancer is a shitty deal. Maria knows it; Monica would prefer not to.

But Maria is not just any woman. 

Monica, however blessed she is with quick learning skills, is just not fit to be so imbibed with medical jargon and shorthand. 

She takes in more about chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and long-term alternatives to the two than she’s ever learned about in her life in the three years. Some days it still feels like she retains nothing and they’re just following doctors on their word alone. 

As long as it works, as long as Monica gets every second she can get with Maria, it’s all worth it. 

Then one day in the hospital room during post-operative care, Monica falls asleep and wakes up to a different world that’s five years ahead of her. 

It’s hard to grieve when everyone else has had their own feelings processed for years. For the first time in her life, Monica feels . . . left behind. She wakes from bad dreams, not with screaming, but reaching out. 

The milk run with the drone for the FBI comes both too soon and not quick enough as Monica tries to adjust to a life After, and hopes it feels just enough like Before. 

When the drone disappears and they close in on the barrier, she can hear Woo telling her not to go too far. 

But that energy. It’s familiar - like the buzz at her fingertips the first time she broke the sound barrier. If anyone can cross and come back safely, it has to be her. 

Monica takes her first step forward. 

Everything changes. 

Talking to Wanda is hard. Matching the time changes without losing herself to this augmented reality is walking a tightrope while keeping both eyes open and watching two different scenes every second she’s alive. 

But she’s alive and the others are too - she thinks, they have to be, it’d be too much effort - and she just needs to find out what is going on. 

Mentioning Ultron didn’t seem like a bad idea - even if it is a hair trigger, if she can really reach Wanda, maybe then they can speak freely. 

She hasn’t really ever seen that look in someone’s eyes before - that level of malice, of anger, seems too much for one person to be projecting. 

Her glowing hands are nothing like Carol’s trick with the teapot. It doesn’t hurt. Not the walls, not the re-crossing the barrier. 

The tumble on the ground does. That’s how she really knows she’s back to the reality she knows best. 

SWORD wants to debrief and relieve her of duty again - come back once, take a week, come back twice and let’s not push our luck and all that. 

But Monica knows she’s got an assignment to finish. Wanda may be past the point of no return but there’s innocent civilians in the mix and those babies weren’t just smoke and mirrors. 

Her mother and Carol used to have a saying, “Higher, further, faster.” 

She thinks she knows what it’s missing. 

Stronger.

**Author's Note:**

> Episode 4, huh?? I'm still reeling but I also had most of this planned/brewing back on Wednesday so I started it on Thursday, cleaned it up last night after watching the episode and . . . here we are.


End file.
